U.S.Pat. No. 7,999,682 describes a method of disabling an RFID transponder for use in the implementation of among other things HOT/HOV lane application, and is incorporated herein by reference. An improvement and alternate approach to this invention has been made and is described below.
HOT/HOV lanes are often implemented in areas where there also exist conventional toll collection systems. HOT operations are generally distinguished from toll systems in that the toll paid on a HOT system is dependent upon the occupancy level of the vehicle. A vehicle with two occupants typically pays nothing and a single occupant vehicle pays the toll, but systems are under consideration where 3 toll levels might be used where vehicles with 3 occupants will pay no toll, a discounted toll is paid by vehicles with 2 occupants, and the full toll is paid by single occupant vehicles.
Most HOT systems depend upon self-declaration as to the occupancy of the vehicle by some action by the driver. This could simply involve removing and shielding the transponder when no toll is due, but other types of systems in the prior art include transponders with a switch or other input that allows the driver to input the occupancy nomination into the transponder data. Another approach described in U.S. Pat. No. 7,999,682 is to provide a mechanism for the driver to disable the transponder without removing it, which is effective and convenient particularly for use with passive transponders. However, this approach only provides for an on/off function and is limited therefore to toll/no toll types of applications. Further, with this approach there is a risk that the tag will be disabled if the driver deliberately or inadvertently leaves the tag in the off position when used in a normal toll system, causing either violations or increased cost of video processing for the toll authority depending on the details of their electronic toll collection design.
US Publication 20110102156 describes a system to allow for the occupancy status stored in a tag to be recalled in order to facilitate enforcement operation in a HOT system and is incorporated herein by reference. US publication 20100026465 describes the operation of user input and feedback of a tag used in a HOT application and can be used in combination with the invention described herein, and is incorporated by reference.